Walk The Line.

Sunday 22nd September 2024. Ice Cream Cone Day.

A day in Hannover.

One thing I didn’t mention yesterday is that Hannover is twinned with Bristol. I like to keep abreast of twinning towns and cities. I have a little reason for doing so. Kendal is twinned with the German town of Rinteln so I contacted the Rinteln Twinning Group and as a result I am being hosted for a couple of nights this week. How good is that!

Quick photo of the hostel. It is well placed next to the Leine river. I’m not in the upstairs but it looks interesting.

I tried to slow down today. I had nothing particular to do and all day to do it. I have purchased a guide booklet in English to see the City Sights. It involves walking along a red line on the street. My version of Walking the Line is not a Johnny Cash song!

Here is the line with the main railway station in the distance.

My first target was to enter the Neue Rathaus and get to the top for the views at 10am when it opened. My slowing down isn’t doing too well so far when I am aiming to get so,where for opening time. One interesting thing is that the lift that takes me to the viewing area on the dome is unique. It is the only lift in the world that operates at a 17 degree angle from perpendicular. You have to lean whilst it goes up and down.

Great view.

A slightly neglected part of the city was the Victory Column that celebrates the Battle of Waterloo.

Prussians and Hanoverians fought with us against the French in 1815. They were also under the command of Wellington. One way of looking at it was the Germans swung the battle in our favour but from another perspective they were a little late to arrive on the battlefield. They certainly did make the impact when they arrived that won the battle.
Does the coat of arms look familiar?
These are the Three Nana statues but Janice is a Nana four times!

The Altstadt was pretty and had a lot of timber buildings. The city centre had been badly bombed in the war but it is totally rebuilt. In fact many of the timber buildings were uprooted from nearby and placed into the city centre.

This was Leibniz house. Two genius’ in one place!

The city was amazingly quiet by British standards. It was never busy at any time of the day. The shops were all closed though. No supermarkets at all open on a Sunday!

Here is a bombed church that was not repaired. It is to serve as a memorial of the brutality of war. Inside there is a bell that was given to the city by, another of its twinned cities, Hiroshima.

I was a little tempted to buy a ticket for a football match between Hannover 96 and Saarbruken. I found out that it was Hannover 96 Under 23 team against Saarbruken first team in the Bundesliga 3rd Division. I’ve been spoiled by the quality of football I see at Burnley so chose not to go. I believe Saarbruken won 3-1.

It was still early afternoon and a glorious day….what should I do? Obvious, I got on my bike and cycled around the Maschsee Lake.

I needed to support Ice Cream Cone Day too. What about this multicoloured Bobby Dazzler! It just needed some hundreds and thousands!
I probably cycled round quicker than this VW pedalo. Only in Germany would you get this.

I need to enjoy this moment because it is probably the last good weather day on my horizon. I may escape some of the rain but it will not be glorious from tomorrow.

A cool Weiss Bier.

So, I need to enjoy the bier whilst the weather is hot but I can’t be hungover in Hannover! What a lovely place. Thank you for lending us your monarchy and giving me a great weekend.

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